Wow, are people bad at Omaha, I mean, i'm not very good at the game, but the way some people play this game blows my mind. I had my chipstack up over 10,000 early in the $10+1 PL Omaha HL tourney, until I put all my money in with midset and got called by a player with top pair, and a couple runner runner draws, needless to say he went runner runner for a full house, and I was down to 2500. I found out that players were tightening up and ALWAYS went after the low, so I decided to start playin ultra aggressive, and it worked well, i made some good hands, but worked for most of it, and got up to 27,500, and was a huge chip leader. Then came the donking of the chips, I made a few ill-advised bluffs and was down to 20,000, then I got widdled down a little more before I made a jack high flush only to run into the nut flush, kinda figured I was beat, but the guy was so shortstacked I figured I needed to call. They paid the final table and with 11 players left, i made another jack high flush out of the sb, low and behold the BB had the nut flush, once again, I figured I was beat, but this time I was so shortstacked I couldn't fold, and wasn't trying to hang on for a whopping profit of $9. All in all, I felt I played well, even the players that thought they knew what they were doing, really didnt. They'd call allins with hands like QQA4 single suited, not exactly a premium hand in Omaha high or HL. So, I may have to brush up on my game a little more(as mine is not as good as it should be) and play some PL Omaha cash games seeing as how players severly misunderstand the game. So thats another bubble finish to chalk up for me, but it wasn't like I was expecting to do anything in a game that is far from my best, its always nice to get more experience in the game tho.

I ended up making a measly $100 in the cash games, and lost $50 in the Long Kiss Goodnight tourney, busting only 2 hours in when my KK got snapped by 33, he made a str8, gotta love poker right????
Time for me to hit the sack, I have a long weekend in good ol Two Harbors planned, and there will be severe amounts of alcohol consumed, I may not be sober for the entire weekend, so have a good New Years' all!!!

-Bakken

Just call me the king of donkey's. I made so many sickly horrible moves last night it was unbelievable. We'll start with the cash game, First hand I get involved in a big pot wiht is AQ of hearts, one EP limper, and one MP limper, I make it $10 to go from the SB, trying to isolate one opponent. Both call, grrrr, flop comes A97, one heart. A pretty damn good flop for me, I check, intending to check-raise the suited ace-nothin of one of the limpers, EP bets $25, MP folds, I make it $75 to go, he moves in. Fuck me, what have I gotten myself into now, there is $245 in the pot and I have to call getting such a large price on my money. He flips over 97 os, and wins the pot. Looking back I guess there was nothing I could do about this, I just sat at the table, didn't know what type of player anybody was, and couldn't have possibly put him on 97 os.
I then lost another large pot with 4 way action on a board of 98Q rainbow. I was holding 98, my opponent 99, another bad play by me. So I ended the cash games down $221, not bad considering how poorly I was playing I should've lost a LOT more.
Now to the tourney, I was cruising and was 12th in chips with about 75 players left until I made this STUPID play. I raise with AJ suited UTG (why I did this I have no idea, I usually play AQ cautiously UTG. let alone a measly AJ), UTG+1 moves in, it comes back to me, and I talk myself into making a HORRENDOUS call. I beat essentially nothing here, and was only gettin about 2.25 to 1 on my money. The player shows QQ and I go unimproved, now I am downt o the average chipstack and go card dead. I move all in desperately for 5x BB with QJ of diamonds, get raised by 1010, thanks for the protection, she made a player fold AQ. I flopped a flush draw, but was unable to suckout. I finished 42nd out of 918 and cashed for $130, pretty upset about this, as I was in good shape to do well in this tourney and donked off a ton of my chips.
Funny thing is I only lost about $130 on a day where the only thing that surpassed my brilliance was my idiocy, and on some days where I don't make one wrong or bad move I'll lose a $1000, heh, poker is such a fickle game.

-Bakken

Christmas weekend...was planning on playing lots of poker, but my brothers got the new XBOX 360, so instead of putting in a good solid 30 hours of poker, I prolly put in 30 hours of XBOX 360 and 3 hours of poker, lol.

The weekend started with me doing some last minute christmas shopping. I must've seen at least 30 people from high school in the mall, and there were a few more that I didn't see that saw me and informed me later. I ended up going haywire with gifts at the mall, I got my mom a large bag a goodies from her favorite store, Bath and Body Works, and got my bros some XBOX 360 games. After, me and my bro went and saw the Chronicles of Narnia, I remember reading this book for school in like 4th grade and enjoying it, I also enjoyed the movie and would recommend it.

The following day, I woke up in the morning and did my workout, but I forgot to put my exercise ball away. My dog LOVES these balls and by the time I remembered she had already slayed the beast, grrr....I then decided to play a couple hours of poker and won about $550 in two hours; a decent session. I wanted to highlight a hand where my opponent got mad at me for outdrawing him. I picked up AA on the button, and made it $8 to go, two EP limpers called my raise. The flop was AK10 with two spades, I led out $20, trying to chase out any potential flush draws, the player UTG+1 made it $50 to go. I thought about how I could possibly extract any more chips from him, the only hand that beats me on this flop is QJ, and not many players would limp with this hand in EP, let alone call a raise with it, so I ruled QJ out. I figured he must have AK, 1010, or a flush draw, (he couldn't have the nut draw tho, because I had the ace of spades) so I decided to re-pop it, making it $130 to go. He immediately moves in for $250, so now there is $410 in the pot, and I have to call $120. Just shy of 4 to 1, now if he does happen to have me beat, I am only a 3 to 1 dog, so even if I KNEW I was beat this would be an incorrect fold at this point. I made the call and he did flip over QJ, but I got lucky and drew out to my fullhouse with a K on the turn. The guy that I outdrew goes off, starts ranting and raving about how I can put all my chips in on that, how I wasn't able to put him on the nuts when I had the second nut, that I was a horrid player and he was done giving me free lessons. I could go on and on about this, but i'll only say a few things, one, if you think a player is horrible and he outdraws you, don't get mad at him and let him know he did something wrong, treat it like a business, he's your customer, you must treat him nicely or else he may leave your business (poker table). This is a important thing I have learned in the past year, no matter how bad of a play a player makes and then outdraws you, you have to suck it up, be respectful and tell him/her nice hand. You must keep that player there as long as possible and being a dick isn't going to accomplish that. Two, I explained above why I didn't think the player had QJ, so I made a misread and it induced me to make a bad reraise and pot commit myself, therefore it was a HUGE -EV play for me and a LARGE +EV play for my opponent. Yet, he still gets mad that I didn't fold this. Wouldn't you be more than happy to get a little less than even money being a 4 to 1 favorite???? Of course you would, yeah it sucks getting outdrawn in a $500 pot, but you're going to see profit from that play in the long run, another reason not to get pissed at your opponent. Last thing, I could see if I made some horrendous play where I was drawing to runners or a 4% shot and hit it, but I had the second nut, on a board where I figured the nuts to be highly unlikely, so I essentially considered it the nuts. If you are going to get mad at players for making a call with the second best possible hand and then getting outdrawn, you simply shouldn't be playing this game. Players these days have no respect for their opponents or the game and they all think they're the greatest the game has seen. Getting pissed does nothing but maybe make your opponent, who otherwise wouldn't know, he made a mistake, and put yourself on tilt, which is -EV. Well, I am done ranting about that, onto the rest of my Christmas weekend.

Christmas Eve we opened presents and I got a bunch of good stuff as usual, including Call of Duty 2 for the XBOX 360. Me and my bro Christian played this game quite a bit, and I just couldn't beat the little punk, I was getting pretty frustrated, even when I was sitting behind the MG42 throwing an onslaught of bullets at his position to pin him down, he'd just throw a bunch of grenades in a prayer and one of them would hit me, ARG! On Christmas Day I went to the movies with the rest of the family, Christian and I went to Wolf Creek and Stefan and my Mom went to Narnia. Wolf Creek sucked, the whole movie was boring. It had a good premise, but there was just too much himhaw and not enough action or suspense, all in all, I wouldn't even rent it when it comes out to DVD if I were you. So that was my weekend, I played about 2.5 hours of poker and made roughly $850, not a bad hourly wage. I will be coming back to Two Harbors this Wednesday through New Years to visit my buddy Dan who will be coming to visit from Vegas. I hope to get together with some other friends too, but we'll see how busy I am, and how busy they're as well. Well don't get too SOBER this New Years! ;-P

Also,
I am in the process of designing the first annual FCP Classic, it should be finalized sometime this week, so keep your eyes posted here and Full Contact Poker for details...

I played for about an hour tonight before bed, normally I wouldn't blog about this, but there was a particular hand that I wanted to highlight. I held K10 offsuit in the cutoff seat, there was 1 EP limper in front of me, I decided to try and steal the $5 pot with K10 as it isn't really a hand you want to play, but if you're going to you should be raising, so I made it $8 to go, and the EP limper called. The flop came down J103, an ok flop for my hand, but it still went check-check. Turn brought a harmless 5, I bet $11 into the $19 pot, and my opponent called. I put him on some sort of draw or low pocket pair at this point, so I was actually pleased that he called this. River brought a 6, a good card for me. The pot is now $41, and my opponent moves all in for $55, this is the main move in the hand I wanted to talk about in a second. I think about it for a little bit and realize the only possible hand he could have is a busted draw and he is trying to buy his way out of it. If he was slowplaying a monster he would've value bet the river or even checked trying to get me to raise, so I knew he didn't have that, he also didn't have a J, because he would likely value bet this as well on the river or just check call. Had this particular player bet something like $25-$30, I probably would've folded, because then it would've looked like he had a J, but being that his bet was so large and my read on the turn, it was an easy call, and my pair of tens took the pot down as he had a busted straight draw.
Many players make this highly costly mistake thinking a bluff needs to be a large amount to work. Against experienced players overbetting the pot makes it too easy to recognize it as a bluff, especially if the whole hand you've been calling and not taking the lead in the pot. Against experienced players this is my favorite play to use to get paid off, if I have a strong hand, i'll do what i call an overvalue bet. Meaning i'll bet something like $150 into a $100 pot with a very strong hand, to make it look like a bluff, i'll usually get paid off using this play more often than a traditional value bet against experienced players. But i'll overbet the pot against weak players as bluffs, as they usually are too afraid to put that kind of money in the pot. I just found this certain hand interesting and wanted to explain the play to some of you who may be interested on what goes on in my sick, twisted, and poker infested mind. Time for bed.

-Bakken

Talk about an ass kicking...this was the first time at an HPT event where I hadn't won any money in the cash games or tourneys, and I tell you it was frustrating. I played in two of the tourneys and lasted 15 minutes in the first and an hour and 15 in the second. I played a total of four hands in the tourneys. In the first tourney I busted on this hand: I picked up 1010 UTG+1 and made it 400 to go, player on the button made it 1400 to go, I studied him for a bit and all his tells were screaming that he didn't want a call, so I put him on AK or AQ, being that it was early in the tourney, I decided to just call and see a safe flop before I invest anymore of my chips. The flop came J103 with two clubs, now I have made mid set and am thinking how I could possibly extract more chips from AK or AQ without letting him draw freely to a gutshot. He bet 1000 into me, a very small and peculiar amount, I studied him some more, and now realized he was strong! all his tells have changed, could he possibly have JJ, if so I'd pay him off, but I believed he had AA or KK so he would definately call if I pushed. I pushed and he flipped over AA, splendid, I am now a 92% favorite to win, until of course the ace came on the turn, chalk up another bad beat at the HPT for me. Even tho this hand didnt have the end result I wanted, I am very happy with the way I played, and even more so at my flexibility to change my read mid-hand, this is never an easy task and am quite pleased with it. I then proceeded to bustout in tourney #2 on this hand. UTG+2 raises to 500, two players behind him call, and I pickup QQ on the button, I decide I want to shutout the pot now, or at least take it headsup, so I make 3000 to go. The small blind then goes into the tank and decided to COLD CALL my raise!!! What in gods name could he cold call with???? Everybody else folds and we take a flop headsup, the flop is JJ3 rainbow, this is a good flop for my Queens as he can't possibly have a jack in his hand, so I go ahead and bet 4500 into the pot, he thinks for a bit and then puts me allin! Now I know he either has JJ, AJ, or AK. Since I was getting about 10 to 1 on my money I was at the point of no return and see him flip over AJ!!! A few things about how poorly this particular player played this hand and how lucky he got. Aj is a very weak hand, especially out of position like he was, not only would most professionals not make a call with this hand out of position, but definately not for a third of your chipstack! It is too easily dominated by virtually any hand I could be raising with, and the only way I do pay him off if he catches a flop is the exact flop that comes, if an Ace flops, I fold, figuring him for AK. This play was just assaning, and yet again, another player gets extremely lucky against me and I am sent to the rail, arg!
Now for my saga known as the cash games, I played like an absolute idiot most of the time in the cash games playing $5-$60 spread limit, and the funny part was, I was winning large pots when I made stupid plays, and losing large pots when I was making good plays. I was just in a horrid frame of mind after the tourney and really shouldnt have been playing any side action. So I lost a total of roughly $1100 this weekend, but I still had fun, as me and Mike did get absolutely annihilated on Friday playing a new hybrid drinking game, called beer quarters, in which I was 7-0. I did also make $115 fucking around playing the video keno machine trying to get off tilt, lol. Mike had a rough weekend as well, but didnt lose any money, until of course me and him decided to play a high stakes game of bowling :-)
We ended up playing fifteen games, and i'll just say I won a pretty large amount from Mike, but somehow injured my back with an 11 pound ball!!!!! Who in god's name has ever heard of someone getting injured bowling???? That game that I got injured not only saved Mike a lot of money, but gave him hope, and that was all he needed to climb out of his deep, deep hole a little bit. But once again, it's all in good fun, we love to bowl and gamble.
So all in all, it was a fun a weekend and nice to get away from the city for a bit with one of my good buddies, i'll be back to the daily grind again tomorrow, grrrr...., time to do more drinking :-)

-Bakken

Its official, my partner in crime, Mike, has quit his job, and you know what that means, i'll be soon to follow. It's nice having a steady paycheck and benefits, but frankly, making $10/hour sucks! The only real reason I have been keeping this job is to keep my Aunt happy who I have been living with, but once I decide to go fulltime playing poker again, she'll be giving me the boot, and I won't have my cigar smoking buddy (my uncle) anymore :-(
A little about my buddy Mike, the poker player. He's a tight, aggressive player, who does switch gears every once in awhile. He switches a little less frequently than I do, which is probably good, because against the players of today, I get caught too much. He has very good instincts for the game, he doesn't necessarily pick up any physical tells on players, he more or less just smells weakness or strength from a mile away and is normally right. Probably the biggest strength in his game is his ability to play position, but that is also one of his weaknesses, he is a little too predictable sometimes, he will always bet his position and strong players pick up on that. He's not afraid to lay down a very strong hand, and in turn isn't afraid to put in all his chips with bottom pair or no pair if he thinks he is a favorite. All in all, Mike is a strong cash game player, full and short handed, his tournament game was pretty weak until recently when he has been working on it, and it is becoming as good as his cash game skill. Look for him to roll over the cash games at the HPT this weekend, and barring any bad luck, have a good showing in the tournament as well. Unfortunately for Mike tho, I will be kicking his ass in bowling and beer pong.
As far as poker goes for the last few days, I didn't do anything. I got one of my wisdom teeth cut out and it was really sore, so I just kinda lounged around. I went to dinner last night with a friend at Red Lobster and it was outstanding, normally I don't like Red Lobster, but for some reason this time I enjoyed it, maybe it was the fact that she paid for me, normally I always pay, so this meant a lot to me that she paid for me, not because it saved me money, it was just a very genuine gesture, other than that I haven't done anything exciting. I'm hoping the hotel we are staying in will have Ethernet so I can give some updates about this weekend, but I highly doubt it. So, my next post will probably be on Monday, and hopefully it will have a story about how I came back $40K-50K richer.

-Bakken

Chip and a chair, is that the saying?
I played in the $50+4 NL Hold'em tourney tonight, and got crippled early when i misplayed a hand against a rock. I had Q10 out of the big blind and took a free flop, flop was QQ4, Early position player bet 200, the rock called as did i, trying to trap. Blank on the turn and I decided to take the pot now and pushed in. The original bettor folded, and the rock called instantly and showed QJ, argh! I failed to improve on the river and was down to 90 chips. Few things about this hand, I couldn't have played it more poorly. This is a great example of what happens when you focus too much on your own hand and not on your opponents. I knew this player was a rock, and what else would he flat call with on a flop of QQ4, obvioulsy he was slowplaying and I wasn't paying close enough attention and didn't realize it.
So now I have 90 of our original 1500 chips, I get AA the very next hand and double up. I had AA 8 times today in the span of 5 hours!!! Three in the tourney and five in the cash game. I then proceeded to triple up with A10, now I was back up around 1150, got all my chips in with KQ vs AQ, and rivered a flush. I then went from here and simply outplayed people, I was playing extremely well. Then I hit a rock of cards and began a battle with the blinds, to no avail I finished 6th out of 247 so not bad, but pretty upsetting since I was playinig well after that first debacle.
All in all, I can't be dissappointed, I came back from 90 chips to cash for a profit of $490. I also didn't get any bad beats when I had all the chips in the middle, so that was key. I have now cashed in 3 of 6 tourneys in the last four days which is extremely good. Things are looking good for the Heartland Poker Tour this weekend. I did lose $250 in the cash games today, just couldn't get anything going in those and was getting very unlucky in all the big pots. The five times I had AA I either won the blinds or won an extra raise nothing real significant.
The money was pretty insignificant today, but I am very happy with the way I played and look forward to going to the HPT this weekend with Mike (fmlycar.blogspot.com).

More to come...

Well...I started playing poker again daily on Friday. Friday didnt go so well, I sat playing the $3-$6 limit first and got bored with that and moved to two $4-$4 NL tables. Things didn't go good there, not because I was getting unlucky but because I was playing stupid. I ended up losing $725 when I finished on Friday. Saturday went well, although I did get unlucky quite a bit I still finished the day up $1K. There really wasn't any hands of significance, it was just an easy cruising day. On Sunday the day couldn't have been better, poker and football. The Vikes won and I have to say Brad Johnson has turned this team around. Although the team hasn't played any real powerhouses except for the Giants, their defense is forcing turnovers and their offense is getting some yardage, their real test will be next week against the Steelers, this game will tell if the Vikings are for real or not. Poker also went good today, I played the $2-$2 NL tables for about eight hours and won $1350. I had some unlucky breaks, like my QQ getting busted by a 57 offsuit in a $500 pot, but I also had an extremely lucky hand as well. I picked up QQ UTG, and raised it up to $8, a player in middle position reraised to $25, two players flat called, this was very unusual, so I decided I better isolate the pot down to myself and another player, so I reraised to $75. The middle position raiser folded, and the first caller, pushed in! What???? Goes from flat calling a raise to pushing? I figured at worst I was up against AK, and being that I was getting offered about 3.75 to 1 on my money, I was obligated to call. The board was all unders until the river which was a Q, I figured I had the best hand anyway. I was surprised to see that the player had AA! Wow, did I make a horrendous read on this hand, I didn't think that particular player could possibly have AA or KK, because of the player's flat call with two players in front, why would you want to let two playes into your pot and possibly outdraw you?? Well...in this case her play worked to perfection, she trapped me, and I simply got lucky. My hourly wage right now is sitting at $54.35, which I am pretty happy with, but it should level out somewhere between $20-$30, because not only am i running good right now, but I am also playing very well. Hopefully this will all carry over to the Heartland Poker Tour Event this weekend, that me and Mike will be participating in. I plan on updating this blog daily while I am bored at work, heh, so I hope you all find it interesting.